


A Voice Through the Network

by Echovous



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, Imprisonment, One Shot, Vex - Freeform, sweet and snarky Failsafe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 16:22:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21200576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Echovous/pseuds/Echovous
Summary: Failsafe mentioned another prisoner who she talked to during her imprisonment in the Vex network.That prisoner was Praedyth, a Guardian lost to time.





	A Voice Through the Network

How, exactly, do you prove your own existence?Prove that you’re real? That you’re actually who you think you are, and not some simulation? 

An easy way to solve this confusion would be to find someone who can identify you. But there’s no one left that can. At least, for Praedyth there wasn’t. 

His Fireteam is dead. He thinks. I-it’s hard to be so sure when visions of alternate timelines come and go. Sometimes he sees visions of himself, back at the Tower, back when he was happier. Sometimes he sees Kabr and Pahanin, without him. And sometimes... Sometimes everything is different. 

B-but he’s real. He knows he’s real. He can feel his ribs shudder with each shallow breath and he can feel his robes hanging lose from his emaciated form. These sensations, although small, are what keep him anchored, centered on his own existence. Without them...it wouldn’t be difficult for him to slip and lose himself. 

“The Vex are fighting back,” a faint voice broke the time stream. It was so quiet and so sudden that he thought he might be hearing things. 

Praedyth propped himself up as best he could and listened for the voice again. Several silent moments passed by. He could hear the blood flowing through his veins and his weak heart that continued to beat despite the odds. The voice returned. Softer. Then louder. 

“Hello... hello?” A pause. “Hello!” 

Praedyth flinched at the voice, his head sinking towards his shoulders. It’s been years since he’s heard another voice, years since he’s heard anything other than the buzzing energy just beyond his cell. The voice caused a sharp, stabbing pain in his sensitive ears. Noise wasn’t something he was accustomed to. Not anymore. 

“AaaaAAaaAhhHhH!” The voice screamed out. 

“Calm down,” Praedyth pleaded, pressing his palms against his temples. “Just... calm down.” 

“Guardian?” The frantic voice continued with a bit of static. “Friendly Ghost?”

Praedyth was silent as he thought. His mind took longer to get going than it used to. Was she talking to him? Had she been trapped searching for him? He shook himself, nearly forgetting to answer. “No, I’m...” He cut himself off, trying to rephrase his answer. “Who... who are you talking... to?” 

The voice didn’t respond immediately. She was thinking too. “Who are you,” her voice had a happy ring to it. A strangely happy ring to it.

Praedyth shifted himself, his voice filling with emotion. “Praedyth. M-my name is Praedyth.” 

“Oooh,” she responded, indifferent. “My name is Failsafe! The AI core of the Exodus Black!” 

“What,” A spark of pain pulsed in Praedyth’s head and he lowered his head, blinking his eyes shut. She wasn’t from the Tower. She wasn’t help. Any Guardian or Ghost would recognize his name, they’d have to. His head dropped into his hands. He really wasn’t getting out of here. 

“Excuse me, Praedyth, but I can’t seem to get a visual of the area,” her voice suddenly changed. “It’s like... really dark in here.” 

“Y-you’re in a cell,” Praedyth explained. 

He reached forward and pulled his weakened body to one of the corners. There was a crack just wide enough to let the light of the weave into his cell. He pressed his head against it, straining to see out of it and locate the other cell. She sounded close, but knowing the time stream, her voice was probably being carried throughout it. She could be anywhere. 

“Oh no,” Failsafe spoke, her voice cheerful again. “I knew this was a bad plan!” 

Praedyth scooted away from the corner and lowered himself to the floor to rest on his side. Dragging himself the short distance across his cell had already tired him out. “Plan?” A thought sparked into his mind. “Erm. Sorry—you were calling for a Guardian and their Ghost, correct?”

“Correct,” Failsafe chirped. 

He coughed, his voice rough. “Were they part of this plan?”

“Yep,” she answered, her voice all happy again. “They are also the reason I’m trapped here!” 

Praedyth would’ve laughed if he’d possessed the strength to. “You sound unusually happy for your situation.” 

“Happy? I’m completely furious!” Her voice was still happy. 

Praedyth laughed, breaking into a coughing fit. 

“Like...” her voice gained an annoyed tone. “How long is this going to take?” 

Praedyth coughed again. “That depends,” he frowned. “Would this Guardian know where to find you?” 

“Hm... Unsure. At least Nessus is nothing but a terraformed planetoid! An entire search of Nessus could take as little as 40 years!” Her voice switched again. “Which is greeeat.”

“Wait, Nessus?” He didn’t recognize the planet name. Was she from a different system? She couldn’t be. Well. She could be... How much time has gone by? 

“This...” He wasn’t sure how to answer. “This isn’t Nessus, you do know that?” 

Failsafe took a second to respond but she remained just as confident as before. “Of course it is! I attempted to connect to the planetoid’s core and that’s when the Vex trapped me!”

“N-no, that’s not possible,” Praedyth said. “Y-you may still technically be on Nessus, but you’re trapped within the network now.”

The AI was silent as she processed this new information. 

“This place flows in a way unique to itself,” He continued. “

“Then where are you, if not on Nessus?”

“It... It doesn’t matter. You’ll never find me.” 

“Are you trapped too?” She asked, her voice calmer now. 

He paused, her simple question releasing a flood of memories into his mind. His Fireteam. Kabr... and Pahanin... How he’d failed them... 

He sunk down to the floor, losing the strength to sit. His eyelids began to weaken, drifting closed with their heaviness. 

“Excuse me, Praedyth!” Failsafe‘s voice roused him. “Praedyth, are you still there?!” Her voice changed. “Welp. He’s dead...” 

“N-no, I’m still here,” Praedyth managed to cough out. 

“Great,” She chirped. “Praedyth, I am curious to how you’ve found yourself trapped by the Vex as I have been!”

“I-it’s a long story, um...” usually he always told his story the moment he got a chance, the moment the Vex guarding him would open his cell door to allow a transmission through. But now, he felt winded just thinking about describing his story. 

What was there to tell?

He and his Fireteam had been so foolishly brave. They’d travelled to Venus using the knowledge gathered by a former Vanguard Commander, and opened the Vault... Only to be wiped from history by the Templar... 

Failsafe continued. “I’d love to know because ever since the Guardian and friendly Ghost saved the City on Earth, I’ve collected and stored data on every Guardian who visits Nessus! However, I cannot find anything on you.”

“Saved...” Praedyth shook himself. There were still so many questions that would never be answered about the outside world. “You need to talk a lot slower.”

“My apologies! I’ll start when the Guardian and Friendly Ghost arrived on Nessus after their City had been destroyed!”

Praedyth would’ve fallen over if he hadn’t been laying down already. 

She sensed his bewilderment. “Do you not know of the attack on the City?”

“N-no!”

“Why not?” 

“B-because I’ve been here a very long time.” He answered weakly. “I’ve never been to Nessus, and I wasn’t around when the City was last saved.” He paused. “What happened on Earth? Do you know?” 

”I, of course, have no way of traveling to Earth, but I was able to monitor the Guardian from Nessus! From what I could see, the City was overtaken by the foreign race known as the Cabal. There were hundreds of ships surrounding the City, including one that attached itself around the Traveler, blocking the Light from other Guardians.”

“W-what,” Praedyth couldn’t put his thoughts into words. “H-how would that happen?!”

“I do not believe I can answer your questions sufficiently. Once the Guardian saves us, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind telling you!”

Save?

“I... I can’t leave,” Praedyth spoke slowly, forcing himself to believe every word. 

He’d learned to accept his position: A man on the outside, looking in. He knew from the timelines flashing by his cell that he’d succeeded in his task of preventing the Taken from reaching the center of the Vault. Everything had depended on him. If he hadn’t gotten a message out, of the Vex hadn’t allowed him to... Those nightmarish creatures would’ve had access to all of time... 

“But why not?” She asked quietly. 

“There’s such a thing called ‘destiny,’ and I believe that’s why I’m here.”

There was a time when an ancient Hive king threatened the entire system, threatened the timelines, and a dangerous place known as the Vault of Glass. The Vex didn’t stand a chance against those creatures, and their only chance at survival was the help of Guardians. Which they needed him for. Specifically his receiver. 

“I should make a file for you! Just in case you change your mind!” Failsafe chirped. “What was your name again?”

“Praedyth...”


End file.
